It Starts With A Motorbike, You Know - A DLTD fanfiction
by RapunzelInTheSnow
Summary: Tamworth has some not quite human new students, one who is just starting there. This is the story of the McKenzie twins, Callum and Ed (a girl) and a sort of expansion on Tamworth. Damn those scummy Griffins! (Based off DLTD by Hateweasel) Set around chapter 348 onwards.
1. The Brat Has Arrived

There was a new girl at Tamworth, who was the sister of the other new student, but had only now started school as opposed to her brother who had been a student now for a good month. It was her first day, and her brother, Callum, was depressed in the corner. Many people asked him what was wrong, but received a saddening noise only in response, or a wince, while his friends exchanged worried glances.

Cameron knew the guy through Callum once trying out for the team, but aside from that, he knew next to nothing about the McKenzie brood - Callum was always polite and the girls said he was shy and sweet - a few of them fancied him, apparently.

This state of ignorance changed when a motorbike roared up, a helmeted and leathered figure on it, which raced up to the nearest space it could park and took the helmet off. A messy head emerged, blinking and then a slow grin spread across this person's face. The crowd of students were frozen - who was this delinquent? Didn't they know about the rules concerning motorbikes? And this motorbike was a big one, reminding one of the younger students of a storybook monster thThey had a backpack on over the leathers and they walked up through the school, slamming open a locker and tossing the helmet in there, and shedding the leather biker jacket and trousers to reveal the female version of the school uniform (albeit with trousers) and producing a pair of school flats in exchange for the big boots, which with a bit of effort the girl managed to stuff in the locker.

A girl whispered to her friend under her breath and got a glare, before Duncan, who was rumoured to have broken someone's nose in his first week at Tamworth, wandered casually over and slapped the back of the new girl's head.

"Hey, brat. You got helmet hair," he announced loudly.

The girl grinned like a wolf. "Hey, Duncan. You got hickeys." She fluffed her hair until it fell into a somewhat normal state, whereas Duncan merely went completely red, slapping a hand over the...bruise...on his neck.

"You are such a damn wimp over that. Be proud, let your sloppy make-out bruisings show!" She cackled and turned about, before squealing suddenly and bounding over to Callum.

"Calleeeeeee!" She hugged him tightly and he sighed, putting up with it and gently hugging her back.

"You are such a..." He trailed off and sighed again. She snickered.

Cameron blinked. That was Callum's sister? No way - they didn't even look alike apart from the same thick, dark and wavy hair. And Callum was always...so quiet.

Pulling out his phone, he began to text Dafydd.

...

"This is Elisabetha McKenzie, everyone," the English teacher said, and the girl held up a hand.

"I prefer to be known as Ed. It sits better with me then Elisabetha." She grinned and the teacher raised an eyebrow before sighing.

"Ed McKenzie, then. Ed, please go sit next to Lionel."

Lionel was a grumpy kid with a habit of ignoring everyone, which seemed to sit well with Ed as she doodled in her notebook. She shot glances over to Duncan every now and then, who was sat next to Callum, and a grin lit up her face.

"Can anyone tell me what this might mean?" the teacher asked, having read a poem out - something about a girl soldier.

"It's about suicide in the face of a future war," Lionel said, finally speaking. The teacher smiled, relieved that at least one student appeared interested - unlike the Hackett boy who was sulkily sitting on the left side of the room.

"Well done, Lionel - _Yes_, Miss McKenzie?"

Ed had raised her hand, causing a sniff of derision from both Lionel and a certain Walter Hackett, both of which she ignored. 

"Is it not also about what a war can cause, and possible PTSD?" she asked, and the teacher blinked.

"I suppose it could be, but poetry is about causing interpretation, after all."

Lionel frowned, before raising his hand. "So both of these are subjects that we could discuss should this poem arise in our exams?" he asked, and the teacher nodded. Ed grinned at Duncan who grinned back.

Lionel frowned thoughtfully. She and Duncan appeared to be close...Perhaps they were 'into' each other? His attention was brought back by another question about the poem.

...

In the next lesson (Mathematics), the Headmaster stormed in, fuming. "Miss McKenzie, a word, please!" he said loudly, glaring at the girl who suddenly looked as though butter would not feel one hint of warmth in her mouth. The glare didn't lessen.

Duncan blinked in astonishment. "Ed, you've been here for two or so hours. What the hell did you do in that short time?" he whispered, and Ed shrugged.

"Hell if I know," she mouthed before standing and following the teacher outside.

Miss Davinson sighed. "Well, if we could continue with simplification within algebra-"

"RIDING A MOTORCYCLE LIKE A COMMON THUG INTO OUR HALLOWED GROUNDS!"

"-gather up the symbols such as 2a and 3a and add them together-"

"WHAT IN CHRISTENDOM WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"-and the numbers as well. You should now be able to simplify the equation down-"

"YOU WILL BE USING YOUR TIME TO CLEAN THE STATUE AS OF NOW! AFTER SCHOOL, WITH THE OTHER DELINQUENTS!"

"-so please complete the worksheet...Ah, Miss McKenzie, welcome back to the classroom!"

Ed slumped grumpily in her chair, and Duncan snickered, causing her to raise her head and look at him.

"Must of reminded you of when your mom saw you'd bought that monstrosity of yours," he whispered in an offhand manner, snickering.

"Shut up, Duncan!" she hissed, blushing an angry pink before concentrating on the worksheet fiercely. Miss Davinson coughed.

"Please refrain from talking like that in my lesson, Miss McKenzie." She lowered her glasses to glare and Ed frowned and concentrated more on the worksheet, while Duncan cracked up beside her, until he was snorting loudly. The glare shifted to him.

"A joke that you would like to share, Mr Reese?"

The snorting trailed off, and Duncan shook his head frantically, to which the teacher smiled a dangerous smile, a shark's smile.

"Well, I hope you reflect on this when you are cleaning the statue alongside Miss McKenzie. Perhaps you two can laugh together?"

Ed grinned at Duncan who held a finger up. "Not one word, brat. Not. One. Word."

* * *

The poem in the English class is Come on, Come Back by Stevie Smith.


	2. Of Buckets and Gold Paint

Tamworth Academy. A school of glistening potential, a strict moral code, and students who are taught to become the next generation of power. Its peaceful grounds are set off by a centaur statue that shows off its mascot and symbol that is easily recognised and must be kept pristine.

The trouble was, Warwick Academy and Tamworth had a history of vandalising each others' statues. Perpetrators had almost been caught this time, but today found a certain McKenzie girl and Duncan Reece scrubbing at the statue alongside the other delinquents.

"This sucks!" Duncan grumbled and Ed snorted without any humour.

"Preaching to the Cinderella choir here, sister." She looked a little harder.

"Is that seriously a golden dick? What sort of closeted homophobe would draw a giant golden dick on the ass of a centaur?" she pondered and Duncan grimaced.

"That is gross."

Ed scrubbed at the gold paint, sighing. "Be grateful you got to scrub lipstick off its mouth."

A sigh came from between them. "Well, some bright spark wrote something that on a keypad would spell 'GAY CENTAUR'. I checked it on the keypad. And Belieber, which is frankly tarnishing the good name of Tamworth. Nobody in the UK really likes Justin Bieber unless they've been brainwashed." This kid had a gloomy countenance. His name was David Crossley, and he had been caught putting salt into the teacher's lounge sugar pot.

Duncan grinned. "Ed, meet Dave, Dave, meet the brat."

"I would shake your hand, but mine is covered in _gold dick paint_," Ed added, causing David to smile a little and Duncan to make a face at her.

"Who's got the glue remover?" he asked a while later, and someone chucked it at his head. Duncan picked it up, rubbing his head with a glare but managing to remove the bow from the centaur's head.

Dave sighed. "Sanding paper?"

This too was chucked.

The boy throwing these things was one of the real delinquents - a boy by the name of Terry Shrew. He was small and rather whiny, but he knew a few things about people that those people didn't want to become public knowledge. However, he had been caught in a fistfight with another student and so was put in charge of cleaning supplies for those actually fixing the statue.

"Well, little ray of sunshine," Ed said in a sweet tone, teeth on show as she grinned."Know what you should do?"

"What?" Terry asked, glaring at this stupid girl who simply bared her teeth.

"Think fast!"

A bucket of dirty water hit the boy, upending on his head and soaking him completely. Understandably, he screamed and fell backwards. Everyone laughed at seeing him covered in muddy gold and blue water, that probably had ruined the shirt he was wearing. The bucket was thrown from his head and he glared at Ed.

"You...You utter cow!"

She laughed lightly. "So said the pot unto the kettle, Daisy."

Terry chucked a sponge at her and she dodged it as much as was possible, getting caught by it slightly and sighing.

"Idiot." She brushed the water off her face as much as she could, before picking up the sponge and continuing to scrub at the gold paint. "I swear though, I will hunt down whoever did this."

One of the boys blinked. "We could always get their statue back, couldn't we?"

Ed grinned. "They have a statue?" she asked in an innocent tone of voice, which had Duncan looking at her suspiciously.

"Yeah, this bloody obnoxious griffin. It's difficult to get."

A slow grin spread across her face. "Thankfully, I have a plan in mind..." she said quietly, and Duncan sighed.

"Are you planning to do what I think you're planning to do?"

She hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe. I'll talk it over with you later - don't tell Callum, though, he'd do his nut."

Duncan continued to scrub and sand away obscenities that had been written in permanent marker. "If it gets out of hand, I'm ratting you out."

She frowned and stuck her tongue out at him. David sniggered and she grinned at him.

"Oi, McKenzie," one of the lads said loudly and she turned. "Want to know a fun tradition we have after cleaning the statue?"

...

Ed was giggling, covering her mouth with her hand as the group of 'delinquents' moved forward, carrying the biggest bucket between them. Dirty water sloshed over the sides as they did so, moving forwards until they stood underneath the headmaster's window, a few feet away from the wall. Faint voices could be heard from inside, and all the teenagers looked to be oddly happy as they swung the bucket.

"We have to make the bucket fall back, it's a precise science. One year these dudes broke the window and had to pay for a new one as well as receiving a week of detentions. Not fun," the one who appeared to be the ringleader explained. Ed grinned, which the boy took as a signal to demonstrate.

"Okay! On three!" the boy shouted, and they began to heave the bucket into a gentle motion, moving backwards to give it more momentum and getting splashed by the dirty water themselves.

"One! Two! Three!"

The water sailed from the bucket, splattering the window as the metal fell back down with a clunk. There was a shout of rage and the entire group began to run, howling with laughter at the sight of their chaos. Ed split off towards the doors of the school, running through and heading to her locker. Grabbing her stuff she dived into the girls' bathroom and emerged in her biker gear, racing towards the car park and starting her bike up, making sure she was balanced. Duncan ran up at that moment.

"I'll see you later, okay, brat?" he said, and she nodded, pulling on her helmet. She roared away, and David ran past Duncan.

"Guards are on their way! Move it! Every man for himself!" he yelped at high speed and Duncan took off like a rabbit, his heart hammering in his chest with the adrenalin.

...

Ed pulled into the garage and clambered off the bike, turning around to see her mother tapping her foot.

"I told you not to take that thing to school, Elisa."

Ed looked mortified. "Moooooooom, no. You know I hate being called that!" she whined and her mother fixed her with a look.

"As much as I hate receiving calls from school? As much as I hate being told my daughter is acting like a delinquent?"

"Mom, motorcycling does not equal delinquency!" she groaned, tugging off the leather trousers and cycling boots. Her mother tutted.

"Look at the state of your shirt! And your hair - just go change, Ed. Please."

Ed trudged grumpily into the house, stomping upstairs.

"Are you done with the statue?" Callum called from his room and she slammed the door of her own room as she walked in, flinging herself on the bed and grumbling into her pillow before her phone pinged. She blinked before looking at the text, and put the phone down.

Honestly, all this fuss over such a beautiful thing as her motorbike was. It was ridiculous.

"Hey, Callum?" she called through the wall. "Why didn't you talk to me today? Or Duncan, for that matter?"

She heard him pad out of his room and her door opened.

"I was at the gardening club after first period, and I'm not in a lot of your classes anyway. And I was kind of avoiding Nora."

Nora Tolley was one of the more forward girls who fancied Callum, and was always trying to coax him to go on a date with her or get his number. Ed had seen her today, looking frantically around and complaining loudly.

"Tried telling her about your boyfriend?" Ed asked in amusement.

"No. I don't want to upset her..." Callum fidgeted and Ed sighed. The bad thing about Callum was that he wasn't very good with putting himself first, aside from hiding from the girls at school.

"Well, do you want me to pull the loving protective sister thing or prank her? Cause these are kinda your options...I could dye her hair..." She made sure to look serious and watched in amusement as her brother's face paled.

"No!" Callum shrieked, "I'll talk to Nora...I'll say I have stuff after school for a while..."

Ed snickered. "You do that, honey."


	3. You Can't Do 'Called It' For My Brother

The sun was shining down upon Tamworth Academy, one of the best schools in England and rival of Warwick (some of its students had transferred from there after certain incidents) and the corner of the ivy-covered Art Building where a group of 'delinquents' were now playing cards - or more accurately, playing Go Fish. The person who won would receive a packet of Wine Gums - a serious prize. The boys had sort of adopted Ed from respect (and because she had a damn cool motorbike).

"Ed, d'you have any threes?" asked David, and she snorted, handing one over before looking up and grinning.

"Hold the game, gentlemen. I see a brother of mine."

Indeed, a certain Callum McKenzie appeared to be talking to the girl we were introduced to before - one Nora Tolley, who seemed to be kicking off slightly. Callum held up his hands and she scrubbed at her eyes, looking up at him before he said something, covering his mouth afterwards. She looked shocked and then started to yell at him, causing him to yell back. The group was too far away to hear what was being said, fortunately, but the gist appeared to be that Nora disagreed with something that the McKenzie lad had said.

"Bet you a tenner he insulted her," David said and Ed grinned in the wolfish manner she had. The others sensibly moved back, not wishing to partake in a bet that Ed would most likely win - it was about her brother, after all, so she should know the most about it.

"You're on, I bet he told her about his relationship."

David scoffed, "He isn't going out with any of the girls...So I take your bet!" A grin was his only answer.

Ed watched as Nora stormed off and waved Callum over. The boy looked rather upset.

"Um...it may have slipped out about my boyfriend..." he said quietly and Ed made a little sound of satisfaction, taking the tenner offered to her by David and getting up to hug her brother as he shifted. He glared at the tenner before the miserable expression took over his face again.

"That's cool, but what did she say to bring you down? Want me to go get her for you, avenge your honour?" Ed asked cheerfully.

"Nah...She doesn't know who it is, anyway...She said I was leading her on and that she thought I could have handled it better and not hurt her feelings."

"That's stupid - she doesn't have feelings. She's got instincts 'cause she's an octopus. All clingy and slimy."

Ed's brand of 'cheering up' was unique, really, as it was coaxing, sometimes threatening and definitely with limited use of common sense. But at least she tried, and it was usually this fact that brought the smile back to her brother's face.

"She's not an octopus...She just got a bit too attached," he protested, while the boys being Ed sniggered.

"Like an octopus with barbed suckers," Ed offered and her brother shook his head sadly.

"Wait - you're gay?" David asked and Callum nodded. A few of the delinquents began passing money around, and Ed sighed in frustration.

"No. Bad. You lot can't do the 'called it' thing about my brother. Only I can." The boys stuck their tongues out in unison, kicking each other a little.

Callum waved his hand despondently. "It's alright...I'm in a relationship so they needn't worry either," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but Terry would be awful to you about it, you know," David said and Ed suddenly straightened up. Of course. Terry was the one person who could turn this situation into a very very bad one.

"Nora won't tell, will she?"

Callum shook his head. "She'd be too afraid of it backfiring on her," he pointed out and Ed turned to them.

"If Terry gets wind of what happened, I will kick your asses. Agreed?"

"We wouldn't tell him anyway," a boy called Josh pointed out. "He's a scumbag."

"You better not."

...

At lunch, sitting in the nearly empty 'Rec Area' on one of the benches, Cameron was texting Dafydd under the table when he felt pressure on his shoulder. Two hands were resting there - Ed McKenzie's.

"You know Dafydd Blake?" she asked, blinking in surprise.

Cameron blushed."He's my boyfriend...Wait, how do you know him?" he asked and she grinned.

"Reputation, of course...Oh, my friend attends Warwick, so he has heard of him and he brought it up in conversation. Not like I know him personally, don't worry. Small world though, huh?" She took her hands off his shoulder and started to walk away, whistling.

Cameron sighed, finding this extremely odd. Normal people don't just walk up and read your texts...He messaged Dafydd about it, wondering whether Ed, well, knew.

...

"Warwick actually gets our lot killed from time to time, I'm sure of it," Sean (one of the delinquents) was telling Ed. "Connor - he was a sexist prick, but still - got murdered on one of the trips and they only ever found his foot. That's what they say, anyhow, but the teachers just say he's still missing. Load of bull, if you ask me."

Ed blinked, unsure whether to believe this or not. A lot of Tamworth's urban legends had been thrown at her by the delinquents, but this one sounded like the truth. She considered it for five minutes.

"I don't think they killed him, though," she said finally, somewhat distantly. Sean looked at her, surprised before grinning.

"Nah, they're too proper and wussy to attempt murder," he sneered.

It was then that he noticed Ed looking into the distance, worrying at her lip. Her gaze was focused on a teacher who was yelling at a student - a small girl with a frown on her face who appeared to be arguing back.

"Who's the girl?" she asked slowly, her eyes never once leaving this person's face.

Sean squinted, and shrugged. "I think she's called Sophie - she transferred today."

Ed blinked, stood up and started to walk over. The girl looked over as well, running to hug Ed, who didn't hug back but instead looked down at her in displeasure.

"Fancy meeting you here...Why didn't you tell me you were on your way?" Ed asked, and the girl began chattering at a high speed until the teacher stormed over. Ed held a hand up.

"Sir, this is my...cousin. What happened?"

Sean frowned. It was quite obvious to him that Sophie was not Ed's cousin - so what exactly was going on?

"She bit another student!" he said and Ed sighed.

"My cousin is easily frightened, she suffers from Aspergers' and a certain paranoia. Please excuse the incident." Sophie looked up with limpid eyes, tears threatening to spill over.

Ed looked down at her in an angry manner before smiling as the teacher walked away, saying something about arranging a meeting with the headmaster and Ed's mother about the incident.

"Come on, Sophie, come sit with me for a while." She bent down so the other girl cold climb on her back.

The girl scrabbled for a bit before settling and Ed carried her over, glaring at her a little.

Sean watched this with a frown before Ed brought Sophie and plopped her next to him.

"Watch her, would you?" She seemed rather fed up as she wandered off, and Sophie wriggled in her seat, grinning widely in a way that showed off her teeth. Sean looked sideways.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this girl?" he muttered. Sophie looked up with a glint in her eye.

"Tag."


	4. Who Is The Dagda?

Callum was sitting next to Duncan, chatting and smiling, when he saw Ed rushing over.

"Callum, the puppy turned up! Mum must have enrolled her, dear Dagda above!" Ed seemed to be fuming and Callum quickly stood up to grab her shoulder.

"Sophie's here? What the hell is she doing here?" he asked, looking over to see Sophie apparently playing Tag with Sean, who looked very bewildered.

"What's a Dagda?" Duncan asked out of interest, but was ignored by both. He sighed. So it was one of these things, where he would be ignored for a small while.

"She wasn't meant to be outside the house! She's just a baby, what was Mum thinking? That it would somehow be a good experience?" Ed calmed down after Callum squeezed her hand a little forcefully, but rubbed the space between her eyebrows in a stressed manner.

"She's just too much to handle for you. Hopefully she's been enrolled in one of the part time attendance spots, for the kids who've been home-schooled? Or tutored?" Callum suggested.

Whipping out her phone, Ed began to text quickly and a few moments later the green phone pinged.

"Yup. She says we need to watch out for her for obvious reasons." Duncan grinned. It was another McKenzie thing, then.

They were, after all, not human.

Ed and Callum were in fact elves - and not only that, elves of a family who made up part of a Sidhe 'court'. Usually they managed to keep this under wraps, and they could live normally in a house in London with their mother quite happily, and not be bothered by their other side, as it were,

The trouble was, they had been lumped with Sophie by a noblewoman of the Sidhe. Sophie was her pet, a dangerous one if left unattended. She was a baby of the Cerberus race, who could manage two forms - one of a small human girl, the other of a three headed dog.

Sophie loved the McKenzies, but when transformed was roughly the size of a St Bernard. In a few hundred years or so she would be house sized. Ed found her very annoying. Almost as annoying as she found the noblewoman who owned her.

Duncan, of course, knew of their race because of a reason which shall be revealed later, but that at this moment shall remain a secret. However, he knew very little of their culture - the Dagda is otherwise known as the Good God, the light who watches over them. The rest of their culture had to be kept from him.

Their nature - and Sophie's as well - were things that needed to be kept a secret from the normal students of Tamworth. Sophie made that difficult as she was, in all honesty, a dog in human form. But to all intents and purposes, the McKenzies had been raised as human, and as such did not fully have the need to be entertained all the time as many of the Fair Folk do - as such entertainment usually came from the Hunt or pets, or games played with living beings as the pieces. When they matured they had the possibility of becoming such beings, which was scary for them, as it was a sort of delayed psychopathy. Their whole way of thinking would change, possibly.

But this was not the time to go on about that, only to make sure that Sophie was not found out.

Cameron was at that moment texting Dafydd, asking him if he knew anyone who had friends at Tamworth. Dafydd had assured him that he would ask around, but so far as he knew it was only the Seven who knew Cameron. Slipping his phone back in his pocket, he glanced over to the panicking Ed, frowning. He would have asked what was wrong, but found himself somewhat creeped out by the girl. She had after all punched one of her new found friends because he admitted to bullying someone who had since left the school - saying that some people cannot control their mindset and should not therefore be judged. The boy who had been punched still had a great big bruise surrounding his left eye, and Ed had a bruise on her arm from dodging his retaliation.

At that moment, Sophie barrelled into him, knocking him flat, and running off it hour apologising. Callum, however, looked horrified.

"Gully! Sorry about...about Sophie..." he called as he ran over, helping Cameron up. Ed merely snorted and Duncan ignored it, before Sophie ran past them, knocking Ed to the ground. Ed immediately sprang back up.

"Oh, that shit just isn't on..." she growled loudly, causing Duncan to cackle at the swearing as she suddenly raced forward.

"SOPHIE, I'M GOING TO PUT A LEASH UPON YOUR SORRY NECK!" she screeched loudly, bounding forward. The smaller girl yelped in excitement and sped up, running this way and that with Ed in hot pursuit, while Cameron watched in bewilderment, and Callum face palmed.

"Oh dear, there they go...again..." he muttered, and Cameron decided to step in by moving into Sophie's path and hoisting her over one shoulder as she ran close enough. She wriggled and laughed, and Ed raced over, apparently not worn out by all that running.

"Thanks, Cameron," she said, and motioned that he should let Sophie down. He did so and Ed collared her.

"So what was that all about? Did you make Sean play tag, you disgraceful creature?" she asked, and Sophie grinned. Ed sighed.

"It's near enough time for lunch...Let's get you something to eat..." she said and Sophie began resolutely marching forward, dragging Ed behind her.

...

"I have never seen someone so small eat so much," David said in a dazed manner as Sophie swallowed the last of her food, sauce smeared around her mouth.

"You should see her at Christmas, it's hell on a dinner plate," Callum told him, and Sophie burped, cackling. Ed shot her a look of despair, which Sean found funny - Ed was acting like an older sibling or some such, while Sophie was acting like a rebellious child of some sort. David, meanwhile, was trying to imagine Christmas, but all he could see in his mind's eye was Sophie holding a giant turkey aloft like a turkey along with a cauldron of cranberry sauce. He shuddered.

"So, what should we do about that stupid dirty griffin statue?" Sean asked, and Ed grinned suddenly, her face lit up. Callum sighed and David chuckled.

"We contact the princess, of course - and we use a little cunning..." She whipped out her phone and began texting.

In Warwick, a slim figure was sat in the common room when their phone gave a ring, something that sounded like a pop song. They giggled, swiping and starting to text back. Another figure next to them tried to look at their phone and they quickly scooted over, shaking their head.

"So, who's your contact? Your mole?" Harry, one of the taller delinquents frowned as Ed shook her head with a wider, more feral grin.

"That's for me to know, and you to never, ever find out unless you're going to be nice to them - which seeing as you don't like anyone from Warwick, I rather think you won't. Anyway, it's going to be me, Duncan, David, Callum and Sophie doing this, not you. Less chance of getting caught! But I need to bounce ideas off and get supplies from you." Retrieving her notepad, she began to sketch a square.

"So vaguely, this is Warwick's grounds, yes?"

One of the delinquents, Paul, snagged the pencil. "Not quite." She handed him the notepad and waited for a while, Sophie sneaking under the table and snickering until Ed prodded her with a shoe.

"Here, these are the grounds. I can probably download some blueprints for the grounds, but those are roughly what you need - the griffin statue should be here. Really, the twelfth years should be doing this, but they won't object after we couldn't stand up to Warwick last time - apparently there were only seven kids. If we get them back with five, three of which are new kids, it should be extremely wounding. Scummy griffins deserve it." He sniggered and Ed cackled loudly.

"I'm going to need spray paint, silly string, gum, super glue, and as many pebbles as you can find!" she declared, and several moved off to fetch these supplies for her. Callum eyed her suspiciously.

"What are you planning with those things?" he asked, and she grinned.

"All in good time, brother mine, all in good time..." she said in an attempt to sound wise. Duncan snorted.

"Good, my ass..." he muttered, before a pinch found its way into his side with a glare accompanying it.


	5. You Don't Know the Half of It, Princess

Ed's supplies came back to her in bits and pieces as the boys fetched them, and she was delighted to discover more than enough pebbles for her little project, which she simply would not explain, but started painting the pebbles with something in the school colours - Duncan managed to get a closer look at them, noting they had a beautifully painted Tamworth crest on each one. Callum refused to have anything to do with it until the actual night, and Sophie simply stared with her head tilted to one side before going off to find a delinquent to play tag with.  
When the Mckenzies were leaving for home that afternoon, Duncan was tagging along with them, smiling slightly at Callum, while Ed coaxed Sophie along the road before walking along by herself once she decided Sophie would now walk on her own.  
"You gonna let me eat at your place, Callum?" he asked and the boy blinked before smiling warmly.  
"Sure, but Sophie will be back in dog form when she gets home, so I'd guard your plate." He grinned and Duncan smiled back, before turning to check behind them. Sophie was wandering slowly along, sniffing everything. Falling back slightly, he nudged Ed, sighed, tugging Sophie along by the hand as Duncan went back to walking by Callum.  
Sophie sniffed and pulled, dragging Ed and herself along towards Duncan, before sniffing him and giving a pleased yelp. Ed sighed.  
"He hasn't got food now, you dumb mongrel," she said sharply, flicking Sophie's ear, who gave a small yelp. Ed sighed softly and smacked her hand against her forehead. "I'm not angry with you, just exasperated, Soph." Callum looked across at her, with a knowing expression.  
The baby Cerberus yipped happily and ran along, nearly going into the road several times. No wonder Ed didn't like looking after her, Duncan thought with a small shudder.  
They reached home and their mother was stood there, smiling and waving. She turned and motioned them inside, whereupon a glow surrounded Sophie, who morphed into the form of a dog - a huge, puppy-like creature with three heads, which snapped at each other for a moment before six eyes turned to Ed and the huge creature attempted to rush her, probably trying to hug her or something. Ed yelped and tried to avoid it, only being knocked over and having paws scrabble at her happily. Pink marks appeared on her skin where the paws had been overly enthusiastic, and Ed swore loudly, scowl twisting her features alongside a bit of an odd look in her eyes. Callum laughed, patting Sophie's side as he walked past.  
"Bloody stupid mutt! What do you think you're doing? Huh?" She tried to shove Sophie off, but the baby Cerberus whined, one head nosing at her. Ed sighed.  
"Mom, can you feed her? She's too heavy!"  
Her mother went into their large kitchen, and Duncan chuckled. Caralie McKenzie was one of the nicest people he knew - his mom was a teacher over at Weston, and she was rather strict, while his father was a writer who spent all his time working and being depressed when he couldn't find inspiration. Subsequently, he had not really found a parental figure he liked until he met Caralie, who treated him like an extra child - the only time he had gotten drunk, she was the one who picked him up and dealt with his hangover. She had refused to use magic, saying he had to learn what happened when you drank, and he had a bit more respect for her because of it.  
How the twins came to be, he mused, was actually a rather odd thing. Their father, Ciar, a Sidhe nobleman of both great fame and great infamy, had taken Caralie as his new 'bride'. The union had resulted in the birth of two children - Elisabetha Aisling and Callum Fionn - and Caralie had taken the twins and her husband into the human realm to have a nice life. This story had actually been told to him by Callum, as both twins knew it like the back of their hand. Ciar had begun to grow restless, as he found little entertainment in the human world, but Caralie had refused to move. Ciar had then ditched her and the children, saying that they would become too human and that he would only speak to them when they had reached maturation. As they had only been one at the time, they hardly remembered him at all. By all accounts, their extended family included three half-siblings that they knew of, two of whom maintained the same policy as Ciar, and several odd cousins, some of which sent long letters about what was going on so that their cousins would be up to date when they came to be accepted in the Court. Ciar never sent word nor presents, however, not one sign that he acknowledged them or that he himself even existed, and as such Ed despised him. Callum thought it would one day be nice to meet him, but said he didn't want to make trouble between himself and Ed.  
He sighed, before hearing a loud howl, lifting his head to see Sophie eating an entire steak, growling and worrying it with all three heads. Ed made a face and dashed upstairs with her schoolbags, obviously not intending to come down for a while. Callum laughed under his breath, and Duncan turned as he heard that.  
"What's on with you and Ed? You're not...well, you know, you're not glued at the hip. What happened?"  
It was like he had poured water on fireworks which would have been lovely and sparkly. The light of humour vanished instantly from Callum's eyes.  
"I don't...I don't want to talk about it."  
Duncan was startled. Had the twins fought? What on earth would they fight about so badly? He looked at Callum, before wrapping an arm around him and smiling warmly. Callum didn't smile, but did lean against him with a sigh.  
Sophie chose that moment to leap onto the sofa they had sat down on in her human form, on all fours and with a huge grin, flopped down on their laps. Callum squeaked but patted her head, while Duncan grinned and leant back. Sophie grinned back, before a loud whistle made her jolt and she climbed off the sofa with a whine, looking up with huge sad eyes at Caralie, who shook her head and pointed out into the downstairs spare room, which had both a small bed and a specially tailored dog bed. Sophie slunk through and slammed the door behind her. Caralie leant over the sofa.  
"We have to stop her doing that. She has to be well behaved in court, and we need to get her basically well-trained for that. You both know that."  
Duncan sighed. "But you have two hundred years to do that, or something!"  
Caralie ran a hand through her dark, wavy hair. It wasn't as curly as Callum's or as Ed's, but it was the same shade, and the gesture was one Callum had picked up. "Actually, we don't know when Lady Annalise will want Sophie back. We need to get her at least behaving enough to be trained to behave properly in her human form. At the moment, she at least knows enough on how to behave, but she still can't speak much. She needs to speak a little more by the end of training. I should think it will be at least fifty years. If only Madeline still visited I could be more up to date on how a young woman in the Court might behave." She sighed. "Well, we shall just have to muddle through it at the moment."  
Duncan frowned. "Madeline?"  
"Ciar's middle daughter. She used to visit a lot." Caralie sighed, before smiling brightly. "Anyway, you two want to choose a pizza? I'll pay if one of you goes and asks Ed which one she wants."  
Duncan stood up. "I'll go." Callum shot him a grateful look, which was seen by his mother, who frowned before wandering into the large kitchen and returning a few seconds with a pizza flyer. "Take this up with you."  
He grinned and took the flimsy, colourful piece of paper.

Ed was still painting pebbles when he opened the door to her room. She looked up and snorted.  
"Why, my good sir, didst thou not think to knock upon the entrance to my chambers?" she asked in a high, sweet voice. Her leathers were hung up on the back of the door, which he saw was still covered in various stickers, although most of them were Pokemon stickers.  
"Did your mother not tell you to get rid of thy papery sticky objects?" he replied, bowing. She laughed aloud.  
"God, your Shakespearean sucks, Dun. What's that you got there?" She peered at the pizza flyer, before grinning.  
"I want mushrooms and chicken. No peppers." She then turned back to what she was doing, concentrating on painting the little bits of the arrow and the hind legs of the centaur. Drying pebbles had been set out in orderly lines, and Ed's fingers were covered in paint. Each pebble was absolutely beautifully painted, but Ed always had been a bit of an artist. Caralie told him that many elves among the Sidhe had natural artistic skill, and that he shouldn't make a big deal of it, as it didn't matter - besides, Ed still sucked at Math and ICT. He still thought Ed should try painting professionally, but she had just laughed when he'd suggested it. Apparently she was just a kid doodling by elvish standards.  
Once again, he shook himself from his thoughts. "What exactly is your plan, anyway?" he asked, moving to pick up a pebble. Ed smacked his hand away.  
"You'll just have to wait and see, like the others. It's not so much for look as for the labour the cleaning will take. I do hold a little bit of a grudge." She grinned at him, and shooed him towards the door. He sighed, wandering down the stairs. As he had thought, Ed was ignoring whatever fight she had had with Callum, which meant it had been pretty bad. Otherwise Ed would simply be swearing at her brother until she deemed it forgivable. Nice Ed who didn't acknowledge Callum was not an inwardly happy Ed.  
Caralie looked up as he walked into the living room. "So?"  
"Chicken and mushroom. No peppers." He sat himself down and looked at Callum.  
"I'll find out what this is about, you know. Always do."  
Callum stared before his face went blank. "I still won't tell you."  
He sighed, leaning against Callum. Well, he certainly wouldn't pursue it now. Not with Callum anyway.

Ed's phone beeped in her room, before a song sounding suspiciously like Pon Pon Pon played out into the otherwise quiet air. She answered it with a sigh.  
"Hey."  
The voice at the other end spoke, and she listened with a frown.  
"You're sure he's going to be concentrating on other things?"  
Again the voice spoke, and this time at length. Ed began taking notes on a spare notebook nearby.  
"Slow down, I sent you the details, didn't I? It's possible if you set up your half over there. We will literally be done within seconds. I know what I'm doing. We just have to keep both of our brothers occupied."  
She sighed. "Yes, I'll help you pick out a dress for that bloody dance. And I have to go to, so I need your advice. Callum's still on about that. It's alright for you, you don't go through maturation. Unseelie blood doesn't, and neither does pure blood. I have the slightest drop of human and this is going to happen. It sucks."  
She sighed as babbling began down the other end. "Yeah, yeah. I know. Marry a pure blood or have a romance or whatever, and you don't go through it. I'm not whoring myself out for anyone. Besides, both of you are in cute relationships. You don't have to..." She trailed off and sighed.  
"I'll meet you for coffee afterwards, okay? I don't want Dun or Cal to hear me. Bye, princess..."  
She set the phone down, breathing out heavily with a somewhat melancholy expression.


	6. The Fuck is A Crab Dad?

The sound of Ricki Martin broke through the silence, alongside stamping feet, and Callum rolled his eyes.  
"She's obsessed with that music." He was tucked comfortably under Duncan's arm as they watched one of Caralie's Daria DVD's, and Duncan rolled his eyes, smiling.  
"Any music. You both are. But you have a tad more taste than your dear delightful sister."  
Callum grinned a little, before checking his phone.  
"Ugh...It's taking too long for pizza..." He sighed and Duncan grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.  
"You just aren't having enough fun..." He leaned forward, watching Callum blush.  
Caralie cleared her throat and Callum hid his face in his hands, even his ears going red. Duncan flushed a little, still grinning before squeaking, pointing up. On the ceiling there was a large painting of a ...  
Nope, he didn't even know what that was. It looked like a white lobster crab thing, with fangs. Definitely fangs. Caralie's eyebrow twitched,  
"That's it. I'm burning the step stool...ED! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE THIS MINUTE!" She raised her voice and Ricki Martin stopped, silence falling upstairs. A suspicious silence with no answer.  
"I MEANT IT. DOWN HERE. NOW."  
"...No?"  
Ed appeared at the top of the stairs, peering down. Caralie pointed to a spot in front of her, and Ed dragged her feet as she made her way downstairs.  
"What is that on the ceiling, young lady?" Caralie growled.  
"Crab dad." Her eyes lit up as she looked proudly at her painting.  
Duncan and Callum both looked confused. Caralie simply passed a hand in front of her eyes.  
"...What did we say about drawing on the ceiling? Or painting?"  
"...Don't?" Ed smiled nervously.  
Caralie gritted her teeth, and Callum scooted back onto Duncan's lap while Ed bit her lip.  
"Elisa, I'm going to be painting over it tomorrow. Don't. Do. That. AGAIN."  
Ed gaped. "B-But I worked really hard on it!" Tears welled in her eyes and her mother glared at her.  
Callum sighed a little. "She isn't really crying. It's a glamour," he whispered to Duncan. Duncan nodded with a sigh. He knew that much.  
"You painted a monster on the ceiling. I told you, we don't paint the house when we're bored! You have fifty or so sketchbooks!"  
Ed whined and stamped back upstairs, grumbling, just as the doorbell pinged. Caralie ruffled her hair and walked to the door.  
"Yes?"  
"Pizza delivery." The boy there held out two boxes. "It'll be £27.50, please."  
She handed him the money, taking the boxes and waving him away with thanks.  
"Duncan, will you take Ed's pizza up to her, please?" A meaty pizza box was opened and Caralie whistled. Sophie howled and bounded out of her room, skidding on the floor with wide eyes.  
"What do we say, Sophie?" Caralie held the box out of her reach, and a loud whine echoed before Sophie frowned.  
"Please my lady!" she said quickly, arms grabbing for the box.  
"Close enough." She placed it in her hands carefully and Sophie grinned, howling happily. Duncan watched in fascinated disgust as Sophie seized the pizza in her teeth, dragging it out of the box and gnawing at the bits of meat with a growl. Perhaps this would have looked more natural were she in her beast form, but she was in her human form. He always had been horrified every single time he had seen this kind of thing happen, and he quickly dashed upstairs, carefully not looking at how the girl was covering her face with grease smears and barbecue sauce, taking his own pizza and blowing a kiss to Callum, who winked back.  
He knocked softly on Ed's door, balancing her pizza box on his.  
"Ed? Pizza."  
She opened the door, not letting him in the room. "Thanks." She took it from him, squaring her shoulders so he couldn't see into her room.  
"What are you doing?" He tried to peer past her and she sighed, blocking him from seeing anything.  
"It's for a friend." She tried to shut the door and he stuck his foot in the doorway, looking over her shoulder.  
"Are you making a dress?"  
"Yes. It's a dress. Now leave." She pushed at him with her foot and he sighed.  
"Is there something else?"  
"I'm texting a friend and don't want you reading over my shoulder, okay?" She puffed out her cheeks.  
"Are you talking to that weird mermaid again? The one who lives in Norway?"  
"Maybe. She's cool."  
"She's completely mad and acts like a judging Luna Lovegood."  
"Hilde's still cool. You can come in if you don't touch anything."  
"Can I touch the floor?"  
She twitched her fingers and he floated upwards, yelping.  
"Nah, I'm not feeling that generous now." She grinned, watching him flail about but still keeping a tight grip on the pizza box. He glared at her.  
"Ed! Put me down! I was joking!"  
"What a coincidence! I wasn't!" She grinned and let him sink down gently. "I mean it though, I'm working with a really nice cotton and I don't want you killing it with whatever pizza you decided to get." She picked up her phone again, snapping a picture of him and sending it to Hilde, taking a bite of pizza.  
"I can't believe Mom is painting over my beautiful Crabdad though."  
He shuddered at the mention of the horrible painting. "That wasn't beautiful. That was very messed up. What even is it?"  
"Crabdad. It's like a parent to my favourite troll dude." Her eyes shone for a minute and Duncan made a face.  
"Like anyone would trust that thing to raise a kid. No. You wouldn't. It would hardly get an A plus in parenting. What does it even do?" He knew he shouldn't ask, but he was curious.  
"He says Skree. A lot." Ed stuck her tongue out at him before looking at her phone.  
"Hilde says your face looks stupid."  
"Tell her that her butt is stupid."  
She tapped away, munching. The phone pinged quickly.  
"She says she technically doesn't have a butt and that anyway hers is better than yours. But that mine is perfect." She grinned at him. "My butt is officially better than yours, dude."  
"Oh hell no, brat. My butt is gorgeous. Ask your brother."  
She pretended to retch. "No, that's way too much information. Ewwww. No."  
He grinned. "Phobic little cow."  
"Says the guy who can't watch a dog eat. And I'm not phobic. It's just opinions of one's backside and one's partner's backside should be kept within a relationship." She made another face, still grinning.  
"True. Tell that to your little mermaid girlfriend." He grinned back.  
"She isn't my girlfriend. She's my blood sister. Anyway, she has a boyfriend and I have..."  
She trailed off, eyes widening.  
Duncan's eyes lit up but he coughed. "Oh? When did she get a boyfriend?"  
"Last month. He's got a tail like an angelfish, so she's a little self-conscious about her own around him."  
"She's got a body like a killer whale, didn't you say?" He nicked a pillow off her bed as he listened and she nodded.  
"Yeah. It's a bit scarred as well. And this guy is way pristine, like, he cleans himself with moss after a proper swim. She feels like she's more of a guy than him so she's worried."  
"Huh. I guess mermaids have their problems too."  
She frowned. "You thought the Fair Folk didn't have problems either. You tend to think we have a happier life. But yeah. We all have relationship problems." She stuck her tongue out again.  
"Yeah, like how you have to be a proper lady." He laughed as she made a face.  
"I don't. I'll just anger a lot of people and wear jeans. I ...I guess I want to stay in the human world. But..."  
She sighed and slumped, and he bit his lip before wrapping his arms around her.  
"You're not going to flip, okay? Me and Callum are going to make sure of that. You are going to be this cool level of crazy even after maturation, I just know you are. This you isn't going to die." He felt her slowly hug him back and grinned.  
"I mean, we are so going to adopt you. After I marry your bro, I mean. You're already our kid, okay?"  
She giggled and let go, shoving him. "You have to court him properly first, douche. And Mom will castrate you if she hears you saying you'll marry him at this stage."  
He grinned at her. "That would rather damage my plans, wouldn't it?"  
"Ewwww!" She rolled over, pretending once more to gag. "I so did not need to know that! Yuck yuck yuck!"  
Now he had two mysteries. One: Why were the twins fighting?  
And two...what did Ed have? What was her relationship thing? Probably just a crush, but even so, it was probably worth investigating.  
After all, if she was going to be his daughter he was definitely going to kick the ass of anyone who broke her heart after Caralie had ripped them limb from limb.


	7. Trina Adams Isn't Hot

Back at school the next day, Ed brought her supplies with her. Sophie was bouncing alongside her and trying to convince Sean to play tag again, but the boy refused, saying he was tired - and definitely refusing when Sophie started gnawing on his hair  
Sophie immediately started to lean on his back heavily, while Ed quietly discussed the plan with the delinquents for the supplies. Callum tried to listen in, but Duncan kept dragging him off to talk to him or look at his notes. Of course he suspected that Ed had put him up to it, but he also felt that he would prefer Duncan's company to what they both referred to as the large barrel of idiots.  
"My mole is also set up, and due to circumstances we are leaving my brother with my mole's brother. David, I gave you the plans, yes?"  
David nodded. "You did. There was a small accident with coffee but...I dealt with it."  
"Good. Well, Sophie will be on lookout duty with you, and we switch when I signal - we are taking down the griffin statue, people!" She whooped loudly, and Sean moved to cover her mouth with one hand.  
"Ed. We talked about not getting us fucking caught. We really did talk about that. A _lot_. That means keeping your trap shut and not letting the teachers know what you're planning."  
David nodded alongside him, as did the others. Ed looked at them before licking Sean's hand and cackling as he screamed and yanked his hand away.  
"_Gross_!"  
The others looked a little grossed out as well, but Sean was freaking out, whereas Ed apparently found this extremely funny.  
David rolled his eyes. "That is absolutely ...yuck. Did you really have to do that?"  
She nodded earnestly before pulling on her beanie. "You need to learn not to put your hands over people's hands. They smell."  
Sean sputtered and David snickered, as did half of the others, while Sophie simply leant across and licked Sean's cheek with a grin, causing the boy to shriek and scream again while his friends howled. Ed looked disgusted and collared Sophie, glaring at her. Sophie whined but rolled over on the grass, giggling, when Ed let her go.  
"You're terrible." Ed slung herself back into David's lap with a sigh. The lad sighed and pushed her off carefully, while Sean was still having hysterics.  
"You're a wuss!" Dean cackled, and Ed nodded in agreement.  
"Now, now...Don't be so mean..." Harry grinned. "That's probably the closest a girl's tongue has ever got to Sean, after all..."  
Sean glared. "Shut the hell up! It is not!"  
"Oh?" March grinned. "Prove it. Who'd you snog?" All the other boys snapped to attention as Sean shifted quickly with a red face. Ed continued to watch, amused, while Sophie was rolling around.  
"Hey, look, it's Gully!" Paul pointed quickly, seeing the large sports player sat almost on his own, texting quickly with a goofy smile on his face. Ed grinned, and waved rapidly, causing him to look up and wave slowly back, looking confused.  
"I wonder who he's texting? His boyfriend, looks like." David peered over and March blinked.  
"He has a boyfriend?"  
"Dude, he looks besotted with his phone, plus he was seen with this guy in McDonald's being a complete dork." David stopped looking and turned to retrieve his shoe from Sophie, who had stolen it.  
"Anyway, Sean, who was it?" Ed asked casually, and Paul sighed dramatically.  
"My distraction technique didn't work then?" he asked with a sad tone to his voice. Ed held her hands up placatingly.  
"It did, just...you know, not on me."  
Sean grumbled something under his breath and Andrew, nearest to him, howled with mirth.  
"Trina Adams? Are you kidding me?"  
Ed blinked. "Huh?"  
"I _said_, I've snogged Trina Adams! At the Christmas dance last year!" Even Sean's ears were red, and a few of the other boys sniggered.  
"What's wrong with Trina Adams?" Ed asked, and David frowned, but Harry cleared his throat.  
"Trina Adams isn't at all hot, she hardly ever speaks unless it's about mythology and she's obsessed with monsters. Her mom teaches over at Weston, but she wanted to go here apparently. Hell knows why."  
Ed looked a little shocked and coughed. "Interested in monsters? Like, uh, what?"  
"Oh, those big three headed hell dogs, werewolves, vampires, the Sidhe, aliens...Total mythology nerd. She says she's met a vampire before when Nora - you know, your brother's crazy follower - asked her about it. She didn't speak about it afterwards."  
Ed kept silent, her eyes wide before she grinned. "Sounds like the perfect match for Sean."  
Everyone started laughing, but Sean looked angry.  
"I think she's cute!" he said eventually and Ed blinked.  
"Yeah, she's okay, but she's no Laura Lee Young. And she doesn't really date." Paul patted his shoulder,  
"I know..." Sean sighed and the boys looked a little at a loss for what to do before they nodded.  
"Sean, dude, you want to go get those little pancake things at Burger King?"  
Sean nodded and the delinquents minus Ed and Sophie stood up and started to head off in a clump.  
"Ain't you coming, you two?"  
"Uh...Sophie, you go with David, I'm staying here. I have homework to work on for today. Sorry dudes." She grinned and Sophie loped off to cling to David, who she nearly knocked over.  
When they had gone, she bit her lip and nibbled the skin there thoughtfully. What was she to do? If she were to go and speak to this Trina, she might be able to fix things for Sean, or to at least start something, but if Trina got closer then she might twig what Sophie and the twins were. What was she going to do? It was a decision which might affect her and her brother greatly.  
She let out a small groan. Damn it. She had to find out how Sean had managed to kiss Trina if the girl was so antisocial.

Trina Adams, she had decided, was oblivious to anything when she read. The crow-haired girl had one jade-green streak in her hair and her eyes, a dull brown, trained on the page as Ed pretended to read the titles of a bookcase near her. She had about a dozen little monster key chains on her bag, but seemed rather young in the face.  
"What you reading?" Ed asked, turning. Trina blinked and held the book up to show her.  
"Oh, Dracula? Nice. Who's your favourite character?" Ed sat opposite her and Trina did that slow blink again, before clearing her throat.  
"Quincey Morris."  
"Huh, he's cool. I mean, dying for your friends and then saying it was worth it? Awesome as hell. I like Mina Harker though, she's okay when not wailing." She grinned but Trina simply blinked again.  
"So...I hear you like monsters? What are your thoughts on merfolk?"  
Trina's eyes widened and her lips twitched once. "I like them. I think I saw one once, but it was hard to tell. I was at camp and this woman was skipping stones along the beach. She was all ...her skin looked like it was still underwater."  
Ed grinned. "I like drawing them. I mean, your story is cool, and I like drawing them." She fished her sketchbook out of her bag, pushing it across the table where it was open at a drawing of Christenna, one of Hilde's friends.  
Trina's jaw dropped and she pushed the copy of Dracula aside to take a closer look.  
"The gills - they're so detailed! And the eyes, the slightly wider bone structure! It's beautiful!" She fell silent and stared at the picture, sighing happily.  
"And this is a ...trout based tail? How did you come up with this?"  
"Uh...I was extremely inspired? I was sitting near this river where this dude was fishing for trout, I think."  
"But this is so lifelike! It's amazing!" Trina flipped the page over and sighed happily. "Oh, fantastic! A Cerberus! I love them, they're so majestic!"

Ed coughed. "Yeah...Majestic..."

Meanwhile, in Burger King, Sophie sneezed and then continued to lick pancake syrup from around her mouth, while David sighed and stood up to fetch napkins.  
"They say if you sneeze, someone's talking about you!" Paul told her. She grinned back at him, before wiping her nose on her sleeve.  
"Excuse me?" A girl was standing in front of them, frowning. "Are you from Tamworth?"  
"Yeah. Why?" Harry leant forward.  
"Uh, it's just...I guess I was wondering. My cousin goes there, Terrence Shrew?" She smiled. "I recognised the uniform..."  
"Oh, hey Angie!" March grinned and waved and she squealed, leaping to hug him.  
"Gus! Hey!" She ruffled his hair and chuckled.  
"Gus?" Sophie tipped her head. Paul turned to her.  
"Oh, yeah! March's name is Augustus - cos he's the first son or some shit. Augustus Marchmont - you know, like Norman Marchmont, he owns a big book company with loads of branches - but he hates his name, so everyone but his family and a few others calls him March."  
Angie grinned. "Say hi to the brat for me, Gus." She looked up as her friends called her and swept off quickly.  
"She is so totally hot," Dean whispered in a low tone.  
"She's Terry's cousin," David said as he sat down, handing Sophie the bundle of napkins. "Angie Woolner, cousin to our dear Terry, sweet as anything and way out of your league, Dean."  
"Hey! She might go for me! She's only a year or so older!" Dean protested.  
"Yeah, once she stops dating her boyfriend. Totally." David sighed as Sophie scrubbed like a kid at her face with the napkins. "Honestly, girls like that aren't single! Ever!"  
"Or they don't want to date you..." Paul pointed out. "That is also allowed." He took the napkins and scrubbed at Sophie's face for her, shaking his head.  
"I really cannot see how you're the same age as us. You're such a kid."  
She grinned and moved as if to lick his nose, but sat back when he held up a finger.  
"Dude, she's not a dog!" Harry protested.  
Sophie's grin widened.


	8. How the Hell Did You Pass Your Test?

They met up a small distance from Warwick Academy - their nemesis with equally rich if not richer student. Sophie was panting and grinning, Ed was carrying a bag that had to contain her supplies, Callum was looking around while Duncan reassured him with a grin and and arm around his shoulders, and David was a little nervous. After all, the Warwick griffin statue surely had many security cameras surrounding it? And what Warwick student would help vandalise something like the prized statue?  
A loud voice distracted him momentarily from his thoughts and he swiftly turned to look in its direction. He blinked as a tall boy who to be honest looked like a prince out of a fairy tale, shoulder-length hair, muscles and all, strode forward trying to shake an almost equally tall girl from his arm.  
"Let _go_!"  
"No-_\- ELLIE! ELLIE MY DEAR!~_"  
The girl raced towards Ed, whose face froze as she was nearly tackled.  
"_Fuck_!"  
She staggered and caught herself before grinning. "Wotcher, Nikolai!"  
This was about the time David noticed the princely type face-palming alongside Callum and Duncan and realised exactly how wide the girl's shoulders were, as well as noticing the very frilly clothes. These were the sort that looked a bit...over frilly and cute, but still rather adorable.  
"Uh..._this_ would be the princess?" he asked, and Ed nodded.  
"Nikolai Quinn, and his brother Rueben. Twins! It's how we met, cos Mom and her friend were the only ones to have twins in their entire group, which is pretty large." Ed grinned before Nikolai tackled her in a hug again. Sophie noticed and let out a howl of happiness, tackling her from the other side and causing the three of them to fall to the floor in a clump, shrieking. Rueben's lips twitched upwards, but he simply offered his hand to Callum as the others scrambled upwards, Ed hissing unhappily at Sophie and Nikolai dusting down his skirts.  
"I think I'm meant to drag you to my house again, mi-"  
Callum shook his head slightly. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Let's go." Rueben looked confused before his eyes landed on David, causing him to raise his eyebrows before bowing quickly to Duncan, who looked a little unhappy but waved them off as they walked away.  
"Nikolai, did you do the thing I asked?"  
"Yep!~ We're good for around an hour or so. Plenty of time!"  
Ed giggled a little at this for some reason. "Definitely."  
Duncan looked horrified. "Oh, Ed. You didn't. That's cheating!"  
"Oh, yes, Duncan. I did a _little_ bit." She grinned at Nikolai, who smiled back sunnily. Sophie clung to David's arm and they made their way towards their target.

"This is epic."  
Ed looked ecstatic as she glued her painted pebbles to the griffin with superglue. Sophie, of course, hadn't been allowed near the many vials of superglue, which had been purchased by Harry's older brother as being under eighteen they weren't allowed to buy it. They were gluing the pebbles painted side down, almost at a leisurely pace. They were nearly done covering the statue in them.  
"Using magic is really cheating..." Duncan muttered and Ed scoffed.  
"Is it hell. They had demons on their lot. I could smell 'em."  
"Could you shit. Nikolai told you." Duncan squeezed more glue onto a pebble and glued it to the griffin's beak. "So what did you do?"  
"Sleeping Beauty in a way. Lucas volunteered - that's Lucas Winters, who me and Roo stay with - so we just use him as a focus, induce him into a sleep - two hours worth, of which we have an hour or so left - and get a focus point. We can enter because of my emotional link to Lucas and you. It's a handy little charm, but it drains like you wouldn't believe. Took a whole lot of my power to do it, and barely enough left for any charms. I'll need a good visit home in a week or two to replenish." Nikolai sighed and blew on his fingernails. "All this dust! _Yuck_!"  
"My side's done!" Ed said happily, taking out the silly string cans and starting to lather the stuff all over the pebbles. Nikolai re-glued one - he had insisted on wearing gloves as he hated getting superglue on his hands - and nodded.  
"Mine too!"  
Duncan sighed. "I have about ten more pebbles to go so stay away from my area."  
The two nodded and layered on the silly string over the pebbles, effectively creating another layer aside from the pebbles and filling in the space between the pebbles as well. Duncan picked up his own can once his pebbles had all been glued, and once the statue was entirely covered in the substance Ed grinned.  
"Five minutes to let it dry, and then I think you'll find spray paint most excellent." She waved the bottle of Tamworth green spray around, giggling, before Sophie whined from her look out point with David.  
"Huh?" Nikolai frowned before his face went a little pale, catching sight of the shadow.  
"Shit! Ed! Look!"  
A shadowy figure was moving about in the distance, and at once they flicked the torches off and hid behind the statue.  
"Well, we did get the security cameras, didn't we? Your mate sorted that?" Ed asked in a hushed tone. Nikolai nodded, eyes on the figure moving about.  
"Is that even a security guard?" Duncan asked.  
"No! It shouldn't be!"  
Ed quietly slipped Nikolai's mobile out of the pocket of his jacket and started texting slowly, before noticing David and Sophie hiding in the bushes, Sophie sniffing as they watched the figure move about before wandering off.  
"What the fuck? What or who was that?" Duncan whispered, his heart still pounding. Ed and Nikolai shrugged in unison before they stood up and began to spray paint the statue in green.  
"Dunno. Sophie'll know the scent, and I texted Rueben to come get us. We have to get this finished now - we have you and David with us, and anything that gets past the spell ain't gonna be pretty."  
Duncan blinked. "It's a supernatural thing?"  
"Might be. Or someone who knows Nikolai well. Either that or the spell is less effective in this realm."  
Nikolai blushed suddenly. "I may not have factored that," he admitted sheepishly and they both turned to gape at him.  
"Oh, fuck, Nik, are you shitting me? I gave you the formula for calculation!" Ed whispered crossly.  
"I suck at maths!" he whispered back, biting his lip.  
Duncan helped spray paint over the silly string with a sigh. "So does Ed. I wouldn't trust the formula."  
"Hey, screw you! Clem sent it to me, it's fine!"  
"Shut up and help me paint this griffin green."  
Nikolai's mobile pinged and he swiped at it, making a tiny sound of despair.  
"Lucas! It's Lucas!" He picked up a can and spritzed it over the griffin, making a patchy job of it.  
"We have to go! Now! If Lucas is awake, so are the guards!" Ed shrieked, dashing to snatch up her things, packing them quickly away while Duncan did the same. Both fumbled and swore. Nikolai let out a piercing whistle, causing Sophie to howl and snatch David's arm as she ran towards them.  
They ran as a clump and swerved towards the gates they had climbed over. They hoisted Sophie over first, then David, then Nikolai, then Ed pushed Duncan over, who tore the little bit of lace off the gate that Nikolai had left there when his skirt caught. Ed then scrambled up, swearing as she spotted flashlights heading their way with yelling men accompanying them.  
"Split! Nikolai, you take Sophie, she's too excitable, and give me your keys! Duncan, scat and get to where Callum is!"  
Nikolai nodded, tossing something shiny at Ed and running off with Sophie, who yelped happily, while Duncan hared off into the distance. Ed nodded, grabbed David by the arm and tugged him down the road with her.  
"You better not be a scaredy cat!" she warned him, racing down the road.  
"Why?"  
"Because this isn't going to be pretty!" She produced a set of keys, and he frowned before seeing a powder pink scooter in front of them and spotting the fluffiness of the charms attached to the keys. Nikolai's keys.  
"What the hell?"  
She leapt on it, tossing him the spare helmet and pulling him towards it. "Get on the damn Barbiemobile!"  
He sat behind her and clutched at her waist frantically when she started up the bike, swerving it around and speeding forward.  
"I wanna get off the ride! Ed! Let me off!" he yelped.  
"You want to get caught, Davey?" she asked in a dangerously sweet voice.  
"No! But I don't want to be on this death trap!" he howled, and she deliberately curved around a street. He gave a little scream and she scoffed.  
"It's a pink hair dyer on wheels!" she snapped over her shoulder.  
"You're driving it like a soul chariot!"  
"It's pink! It isn't scary!"  
"It's terrifying as fuck!" he shrieked as she sped up.

They drove leisurely up to David's house, where there was a light on downstairs and a huge TV could be seen through the window. David was shaking and whimpering.  
"I told you it wasn't going to be pretty," Ed scolded, detaching his hands from her waist.  
"How the fuck did you pass a bike test?" he whispered and she huffed.  
"I drive better than that usually!"  
"You drive like a fucking maniac..."  
"A Vespa like this is not my beautiful Ducati." She blew on her nails and sighed as he staggered towards the house, giving little whimpers still.  
"Don't be a wuss! I drive perfectly well! You just aren't used to it yet."  
"Never again."  
She sighed. "I'll buy you coffee tomorrow to make up for it, alright? Nice coffee!" Her hands were held up as if to calm him.  
"Fine. Seven Dials, Amorino. And ice cream. I want ice cream for the speeding up you did." He slammed the door, and she sighed, pressing her fingers to her forehead.

Nikolai texted her to say he was at her house, and Callum texted her saying that he and Duncan were heading home, whereas Rueben had said he was going back to his house to check on Lucas, who would surely be a little disorientated.  
She sighed as she drove home. Perhaps her panicking wasn't really a good thing when she was driving.  
She frowned, spotting someone she hadn't thought to see.  
"Yo! Wait up there!"  
Trina turned, and her eyes widened before she stopped as Ed swerved up to her.  
"Is that yours?" she asked in a quiet voice, motioning towards the scooter. Ed cackled.  
"Nah, my friend's...I'm borrowing it..." She patted the little Vespa before grinning. "Didn't expect to see you here! Where are you off so late at night?"  
"Oh, my mom needs my help with paperwork."The girl shifted, a briefcase in hand, tucking her hair - which looked oddly neat - behind her ears.  
"Man, that sucks! Must be boring-" She sniffed and frowned, before shaking her head.  
"That's odd, thought I smelt something..."  
"Probably the kebab shop..." Trina said with a little shrug. Ed nodded quickly and Trina smiled a little.  
"Hey, you want a lift to your mom's?" Ed asked, smiling back at her. Trina shook her head.  
"It's out of your way. See you tomorrow."  
She walked down a side street and Ed shrugged, zooming towards her house. If she knew Nikolai he'd be mourning his now ruined skirt.

**So...this is the author...**

**I know that perhaps this isn't being read by many people, but to owe of you who do read this, thank you! I enjoy writing it and it's more written because I want to write it rather than because I need it reading. **

**Incidentally, the tumblr I use is el-tango-de-roxanna. **


	9. Girl Talk

Nikolai was indeed muttering over his skirt, looking at the torn petticoat and marks of paint from the gate ruefully before spotting the half-sewn dress. He wondered if he should look at it, but wanted to wait until Ed was back to ask her about it. It was probably for him, which was nice. He glanced down at his mobile, which was ringing and picked it up, swiping and answering.  
"It's Nik, how can I help?~" he chirped, and then frowned as the person on the other end of the line giggled.  
"Hej, princess!"  
"Who...Wait, Hilde? Hey!" His smile returned, happy to hear from one of his best friends - the punky mermaid and he got along very well indeed. "Nice to hear from you! Sorry, didn't recognise your voice. It's been a bit of a night, my spell halved its time and we had to run. And I tore my skirt." He pouted.  
"Awwww! Poor you! I shall send you one of the best frilly skirts I can find! Did you get the griffin?" There was a splashing sound and another cackle.  
"Yeah, we pretty much covered it with cool stuff, but we nearly got caught. They didn't see our faces, thank goodness! It was reaaaaally funny as well, seeing that. They won't suspect me because I go there, hopefully." He laughed.  
"Is Ed there?" Hilde asked suddenly. "Or are you alone?"  
"Callum and Duncan are downstairs, and Ed's dropping off the other mortal at his house on my Vespa. I mean, she should have brought her own motorbike, but apparently they had to walk here. I hope she hasn't dented it, that would suck so much!" He huffed.  
"Okay. How is situation with your brother and your friend?" There was some happy shouting in Norwegian in the background. Something about finding more cans. He didn't really want to ask.  
"Ugh. Well, Lucas is becoming a little more withdrawn, because he doesn't think Rueben likes him, and he's trying so hard not to show that's what he thinks, whereas Rueben is snapping at him all the time like he hates him because whenever anyone flirts with Lucas, of course he thinks Lucas started it, gets all jealous and yells at him, so it just gets worse and worse. It's so tiring, but you can see, if you aren't Lucas of course, that Rueben's completely fallen for him and doesn't want to admit it, so he just keeps making it into a thing of honour, which goes down so well with the Winters. Nightmare. Where are you, by the way?" He checked his nails, scowling at a scratch across the varnish.  
"Oh, I am at a party with Christenna and Ragnor! We are drinking from beer cans! It is very fun!"  
He made a face. "You'll have a hangover tomorrow." He was suddenly very glad that Hilde was a country or so away. She hated headaches and was horribly affected by alcohol induced ones - which usually meant she bit anyone who came near her. He knew this from visiting her last summer, which he could unfortunately not afford this year.  
He heard the front door bang. "Oh, I think Ed's back!" he whispered, biting at his lip.  
"Hmmm. I shall talk to you tomorrow about hot werewolf. Bye bye!"  
"W-wait! I don't want to talk abou-" There was a click at the other end of the line and he sighed before hearing Ed bickering light-heartedly with her brother.

"Ed, we have to go to the Glen tomorrow! You said you were going to go!"  
"Fuck no."  
"Ed! You promised Sister Dorothy you would!"  
Silence and then the door slammed open, Ed fuming visibly before she sat down with a huge sigh. Not so light hearted after all, then.  
Callum opened the door after her, Duncan presumably still downstairs, and glared at her.  
"Sister Dorothy and Jasper are just going to help you through maturation. Nikolai goes!" He actually looked pretty angry, which was unusual.  
"Nikolai likes it there!" Ed shot back as Nikolai realised what the fight must really be about. He frowned and then his lip trembled.  
"What? You're not going to the group tomorrow? B-But then I'll be all alone and...and I don't like it when we go to the cafe and that guy's there! I don't!"  
Ed looked at him, opening her mouth as though to say something, but instead pushed at Callum. "Get out of my room, Callum!" She seemed actually very angry with her brother, and he conceded with a huff, stomping back downstairs. Nikolai knew how rarely Callum stamped and sighed. It seemed to have been a pretty bad fight.  
"I'll go there with you, Nik, but only to the cafe. I'm not going to the 'group'. I hate it! Being told all of that...It's worse than those maternity groups you hear about, the ones who say 'ooh, there is such a high chance of death, you have to do as we say and it will definitely happen to you!" She flung herself on her bed, staring at the wall before moving to drag the stepladder out of her closet and paper besides it, along with her paints.  
Nikolai moved out of the way. "Well, it's hard for me too! I go there to be taught how to deal with my genetic magic, which will come through at the same time as your maturation - my father has a huge scar on his hand from when his started - but everyone glares at me and I'm sure that Jasper's brother called me a posh freak!"

Ed sighed and stared at the blank patch of wall for the minute before responding.  
"But...Sister Dorothy says I could end up really bad, and ...I might never be able to return to this realm. I really like it here! I like being with everyone, and I've made friends- and - and my Ducati! I won't be allowed that if I have to live up at Pen Hendre." She sniffled. "It's just been... A long night."  
Nikolai moved over to where she was rapidly sketching a small cat wearing a blue hat sat next to a big cat with broken sunglasses.  
"I know, I was there, wasn't I, Ellie?" He patted her shoulder. "And you can come live with me. If you can't return I will so be going with you. And I'm high up! You can bring your motorbike to my castle. I'll look after you, no matter what, okay?"  
She sniffled again and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face to his shoulder. He patted her back.  
"Anyway, you might not be that bad! The same chances go for Callum as well. He just doesn't really know how much you worry about it."  
"I've tried talking with him about it, but he just doesn't want to hear it." Ed looked up, eyes swollen, and Nikolai pulled a pack of tissues out of what would be his bodice.  
"Blow your nose and listen to me. He's not as scared as you, and he doesn't think it will happen properly to him. But there is a chance it will. He's just being a fathead. You know Duncan thinks so as well, so much as a human can understand." He patted her back again and she snorted into the tissue.  
"How many times have we had this chat, princess?" she asked, leaning against him and beginning to play a game on her phone. He chuckled.  
"I forget how many. How many times have you and Duncan talked about it?" He patted her head and started plaiting her hair as she thought about it for a minute.  
"I don't know. A lot. But he has to be on Callum's side."

Downstairs, Caralie was watching as Duncan and Callum sat watching an old TV show, Callum looking very sulky and Duncan's eyes flitting to the stairs every now and then. She sighed, running a hand through her hair. She'd heard a woman at that school complaining that it would be easier for her son had his father been around, but being a sensible woman herself, Caralie knew that their father would be no use. Ed at her most extreme was a well mannered young lady of societal grace compared to Ciar, who she had loved very much until they drifted apart rapidly. He had gone wild during maturation, and a now hushed down scandal had soared through the whisperers of the Court about the day of his maturation, when he had been found acting like a wolf and wrestling with his father's feared Hounds of Sidhe, great white beasts with red eyes and claws that could kill. She had rolled her eyes along with the rest of her friends, and then found herself being courted by him half a year later. He'd become taller and stronger than ever with maturation.  
Ed would, she thought, be rather like him, whereas Callum was not likely to be affected. Her own maturation had only made her taller, a rarity in her family, which was historically affected badly by the Change. Her own mother had not cared whether her children would turn out differently to the ones she raised, but it was something that brought Caralie to a dark panic sometimes.  
And now, they were fighting about it. They had gotten along so well until it had grown into a closer problem. She had hoped the help group and Sister Dorothy would help, but it was always a battle with the solution of Nikolai or Sister Dorothy to get Ed to go. Callum went along of his own volition, but Ed? It was like taking a cat to the vet's after detailing what would happen there and asking it to skip into the reception with a smile on its face.  
Duncan was a nice boy to have around, however, as he had voluntarily taken up the role of peacekeeper between the twins, going to placate Ed and both comforting and chastising Duncan, something Caralie herself could not do without being accused of taking sides. All she could do was wait, and she very much hated it.  
She also hated the proximity the twins had when they were at the Glen to that horrible brat of a vampire. Ed said he was often in the cafe, and Caralie dreaded her daughter ever coming to blows with the easily provoked bloodsucker. She didn't hate all vampires, but that particular one, although she had hardly met him, grated sharply on her nerves.


	10. It Is Not A Bookshop

Nikolai ended up sleeping over, borrowing a pair of Ed's pyjamas that he didn't object to (a pair that ended in leg length quite a bit above his ankle, of course) and waking her up earlier than she expected, due to his normal alarm time.  
It started off with his phone making an annoying sound not unlike the tinkling of bells, which could unfortunately not be ignored. She growled and turned over in bed, but heard rustling and cracked one eye open to see Nikolai going through her clothes with considering sounds.  
"Nikolai. What the hell." She coughed and made a growling sound again, before Nikolai turned to her.  
"Why are all of your clothes so...boyish? _Seriously_. There is hardly a cute thing you can wear here. Where do you keep your frilly stuff?"  
She stared before checking her clock. "It's six fifteen in the _fucking morning_." She raised an eyebrow. "Why my clothes? Anyway, I keep some stuff in the third drawer down. Let me go back to sleep..."  
"Oh, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Giraffe Bar on Saturday, but you need co-ordinating..." He stood away from the drawers.  
"Dude, just shut off the stupid sounding alarm and let me catch up on my sleep."  
He shook his head emphatically. "I have to get home! But you need to wake up now, I can't be awake on my own! Come on, wake up! I have to drive to Warwick!"  
A growl was his only response before he snatched the covers off of her. "Wakey wakey!"  
It said good things about their friendship that she didn't attack him.

What woke Callum up was the sound of toast pinging, and he sloped downstairs, to see Duncan already up and Ed slumped at the table. Last night's argument appeared quickly in the forefront of his mind and caused his stomach to twist, so he made his way over to Duncan, sitting next to him at the table and leaning into his shoulder.  
"_Wake up!_~" Nikolai appeared with two plates of toast, setting one down in front of Ed and one in front of Duncan and Callum.  
"Dnnnnn wannnnaaa..."  
Nikolai whirled back to the counter and reappeared with coffee, at which something akin to a dark-haired Cousin It lifted its head from the table and held two hands out.  
"I know, darling. You're not a morning person. Drink your coffee quickly."  
Nikolai was wearing his uniform already, as Caralie insisted he keep a spare set here (unexpected sleepovers actually happened quite often) and to Callum's surprise, Ed was wearing hers as well. This possibly accounted for her 'Morning can sod off' manner. It was rather early for her, anyway.  
Ed slurped at her coffee and ignored her toast, eating one slice before leaving it there. Nikolai grabbed a slice from the same plate and turned sunnily to Callum.  
"Did you hear the news? One of the boys from my school got kidnapped recently, political rival apparently. Roo texted me this morning."  
"Oh, interesting! Is he okay now?" Duncan asked, one arm around Callum. Nikolai nodded with a little grin.  
"It's actually on the news in a little bit! Let's go watch - I need to get to school on time..." He checked his watch anxiously.  
Callum shrugged. It was at least something interesting, and he had the time this early in the morning.  
"Come on, brat!" Duncan pulled Ed to her feet as the television hummed and sputtered before the news came on. A story about a murder victim came on, and Nikolai made a face of horror, before a picture of a boy around their age (give or take a year or two) and a younger girl appeared next to the announcer.

"And Daniel and Samantha Westley, the children of the politician Matthew Westley, have been rescued from kidnappers by the police. It's speculated that a political rival may have had a hand in it, although the police refuse to release any details on the culprit, but they are now home safe and sound with their parents. Isn't that right, Daniel?"  
A live video cropped up, the boy from the picture looking a little beaten up but grinning.  
"Yeah! My sister was really scared, but then we heard loud voices and ...a constable broke down the door."  
Behind him, a blond lad pulled a face, a hand coming out from off-screen to whack his arm. Ed jumped up, pointing with wide eyes.  
"_THAT'S THE FUCKER WHO RAN ME OVER THE OTHER DAY!"_ she shrieked. "_THE BLOND ASSHOLE WITH THE MERCEDES-BENZ!"_  
Callum blinked. "Is it?" he asked mildly.  
"_HELL YES IT IS!_"  
Ed was visibly fuming. A couple of nights ago she'd come home complaining of a 'fuckin' rich brat' who'd almost run her over with a Mercedes. Caralie had told her not to throw a tantrum after checking that she hadn't been hurt, but Ed had been muttering about it.

Nikolai blinked. "I know him! He hangs around with Phantomhive - Trancy, I think his name was."  
"HE NEARLY RAN ME OVER!"  
Duncan stood up from the couch and covered her mouth with his hand. "Shush. Some people are still sleeping."  
Nikolai leant over and patted her cheek, also making a shushing sound. This immediately calmed her down, and she huffed through her nose.  
"There we go." Duncan pulled her down to sit next to him again. "If he _nearly_ ran you over, he didn't _completely_ run you over.  
"He drove like a fucking maniac." Ed leant back into the couch before blinking at the screen.  
"Nikolai! You got to get moving! Quickly!"  
She pointed to the clock which was on the news, and the boy shrieked, dashing to the hall and slipping his shoes on, grabbing his bag and keys and slinging himself rather recklessly out of the door and onto the Vespa. Ed grinned, snatching up her own bag and digging her keys out as Nikolai zipped away, dashing into the kitchen and out of the door there that led to the garage, pulling her leathers and helmet on.  
"You'll get detention again!" Duncan called before they saw her riding past the window.  
Callum tugged at his hand gently, kissing his cheek as Duncan turned. "It's alright, well just have a quiet morning..."  
Duncan smiled slowly, moving to sit next to Callum and kiss him deeply and happily.

Walking down a street that was on the way to Tamworth, a boy was on his way to school, a plain backpack slung over one shoulder, when a motorbike flew past, a figure wrapped in leather upon it. It was the biker girl, the one he usually saw around the area, but not usually this early in the morning. She pulled over, parking alongside a few other bikes and pulling her helmet off, heading into the little Pret A Manger and returning a few minutes later with a cold drink and a pastry, which she tucked into her bag before pulling her helmet on. A few guys at his school thought she was cute, and Jamie had to agree, frankly, even if she seemed like something from another world. Also, possibly mad.  
He looked down at his phone and swore as he spotted the time.

Ed snarfed down her pastry as she walked up to school, having parked the motorbike a few streets away. Having texted Hilde 'good morning' she now had time before she had to be in her homeroom, and had decided to wait for her brother to get to school before wandering up.  
Only a few people appeared to be actually here, one of them unfortunately being Terry, who kept glaring at her when he thought she wasn't looking. She stuck her tongue out at him and he rolled his eyes, glaring again.  
"Fucking hell, why is he always _such a dick_?" she grumbled, and there was a snort beside her.  
"He kind of is, isn't he?" Harry mused. "All of the time." He loomed over her and she looked up at him and sighed.  
"It's stupid though. It means no one actually likes him." Ed rolled her eyes back, and Harry frowned.  
"He and Hackett hang out a lot, though," he pointed out.  
"...That's because they're both_ massive creepy dicks with a penchant for revenge via gossip. _They aren't friends." She narrowed her eyes before her phone beeped and she checked it.

From: Hilde bby 3  
Good morning to you too sweetie!

She grinned and Harry raised an eyebrow.  
"Your girlfriend?"  
She sputtered and laughed. "Oh, no, just my friend. Heh, I think if we dated the world might end."  
"Wait, you...you're..?" Harry went bright red.  
"Oh, nah. Not exclusively. I mean, I've met some girls I would date, but I've met guys I would date as well. It's kind of...what happens, happens. Que sera, sera."  
"Uh...okay..." He shuffled and she sighed.  
"Does that make you uncomfortable?" She seemed to ask it rather sweetly, which probably meant that he had managed to piss her off slightly. He bit his lip and worried at it before trying to come up with his reasons.  
"Well...not really...it's just...like, guys and girls are more common..." He mentally facepalmed at saying such a thing.  
She snorted. "Yeah. Of course. Ain't like you see many people just enjoying being with who they love. Dude, I have to take you to Pride._ Y'all need educating_."  
He nodded. "Next year it is then. Pride. The whole...thing."  
"Couldn't have put it better myself...Oh! Trina! Triiiiinaaaa!" She jumped up and down, waving both of her arms. The girl turned to look and wandered over.  
"Good morning, Ed," she said quietly, with a twitch of her lips. "Did you hear the principal shouting this morning?"  
"Ohhhh? What about?" she asked, grinning widely.  
"Well, apparently a group went and vandalised the Warwick statue - really thoroughly - and sprayed it the exact green of the logo. He's so furious it's almost like steam's coming out of his ears." She chuckled. "The twelfth years really outdid themselves this time!"  
"Oh, yeah. That sounds...like they did. Wow." Ed's grin grew steadily wider, and Harry began to snort. Trina continued, lips still twitching.  
"All the twelfth years are having an assembly after homeroom so that they can get lectured. I don't think the ones who actually graffitied the statue will care too much. They've made a new standard for the next twelfth years!"  
Ed chuckled. "I don't guess the culprits will care too much either, myself..."  
Harry snickered into his hands.

Callum and Duncan arrived predictably slightly late and covered with little hickies, which Callum attempted to cover using the collar of his shirt and foundation borrowed from one of the girls, and which Duncan wore proudly as he always did. He even ruffled his hair up to amplify the look.  
Ed waggled her eyebrows at them both as they headed into the assembly hall in second period.  
"Had a fun morning, boys?" she asked sweetly, and Callum went bright red while a pink-cheeked Duncan grinned at her.  
"_Very_ fun."  
"Duncan!" Callum hissed, and Ed cracked up, before the Head marched on stage.  
"Now, I'd like to address you about the incident involving the Warwick Griffin. As you have probably heard, the entire twelfth year has been warned, but I would like to point out to you that simply because they are your elders and peers, you are not to look up to everything they do." He paused and glared at the delinquents sitting near the back. "Especially _some_ of you, who I know to be easily influenced and drawn - perhaps leading themselves into - trouble."  
"I would thus like to tell you what has happened. Someone - maybe several someones managed to somehow sneak in to the Warwick grounds. This is trespassing."  
He cleared his throat. "They vandalised the statue in a way that pointed to deliberate planning. There appears to be several layers of...something...but at the moment it is still being cleaned. This is simply going too far, and as such, even though I am aware that some of you consider it a tradition, I want to dissuade you from thinking of what has been done as a good thing and to help you begin to see it as possible dark marks in your record that will follow you through life."  
Ed tried not to laugh. He was so pompous it simply felt untrue. A couple of the others were snickering, and David was looking at his feet with some focus.  
"It is not something we encourage! It is something we need to stamp out! It's becoming too much!"  
_"You and your little dog too!"_ Ed whispered, and Harry's face became carefully neutral in the manner of someone nearly laughing but knowing that this is the very thing they need not to do.  
The assembly, needless to say, dragged on throughout the hour with such lectures, and what made it hilarious was Terry sitting upright and honestly seeming to listen and agree. Eventually it ended and Ed and her group headed off for break.  
Duncan looked at Terry with narrowed eyes before turning back to talk to Paul. "Hackett's in twelfth year, isn't he?"  
Paul blinked. "Yeah, he's leaving soon. He has a bit of a bad rep..."  
"Of course he does, he's an arrogant twat!" Dean scoffed. Ed turned around from talking to David.  
"Who's an arrogant twat?"  
"Walter Hackett. He's in twelfth year..."  
"Oh yeah! Terry's mentor. The hallowed passing on of the ways of the absolute tool might become a tradition if any of the new kids latch on to Terry." She grinned before turning back to David. "So are we meeting at the centre of Seven Dials or near the not-actually-a-book-shop?"  
David looked horrified. "You know that place?"  
"It doesn't exactly hide itself. Little itty bit disgusting." Her face wrinkled up before Duncan cuffed the side of her head.  
"Ow! What the fuck?"  
"Have some shame! Shame on you! Shame on your motorbike and comic stash!" With each 'shame', he cuffed her head again.  
"But Duncan! I'm ...I'm ..."  
She looked tearful and Duncan paused.  
"AS MYSTERIOUS! AS THE DARK SIDE! OF THE MOOOOOON!"  
Callum buried his face in his hands. "_Fucking Disnerds_..."

* * *

**SOOOOOOO**

**I am going to point out that the not-a-bookshop sells...We'll call them items of interest. I know about this place because the last time I was in London, I went 'Oh, a bookshop! Let's go in there! I need some new books!'**

**My mom then stopped me, explained what it was, and when I looked there were like three shelves of books and then just...items of interest.**

**Yeah. **


	11. People Suck

Lionel made a face as Ed sat near him in History, but Ed didn't seem to notice. Lionel actually found her repulsive. She was too loud, too prideful and too much. Her brother, he could tolerate. Duncan, he found annoying. But Ed made him itch with the desire to slap her when she ranted on and on.

Besides, she was a mess of a girl, and a delinquent. He straightened his tie and looked away from her. If he was her brother, he would have tried to remedy her already. How embarrassed must Callum be of her? Everyone knew that Callum had been mortified the first day she turned up. She'd just gotten worse, in his opinion.

Ed was already scribbling her weird card suit shapes in a notebook alongside some frankly weird looking people with horns, and kicking her legs like a kid. He turned away from her. Why the hell did she keep sitting next to him? She didn't even pay proper attention in lessons.

Their teacher, Miss Hamilton, walked through the door and smiled at them.

"Today, we are going to be learning about medieval towns, and how they operated. We'll be looking at this book - Walter Dragun's Town - and paying particular attention to the Flemish merchants, and also supply and demand." She handed out copies of the book, smiling down at a few of her favourite students. Lionel and Ed both got smiles, and Lionel felt his teeth clench. Ed wasn't one of the good students.

Miss Hamilton was a lovely teacher, for the most part, but could be tough as nails when she wanted to. Ed had not fallen foul of her yet, but Lionel was sure it was simply a matter of time.

He was one of the best students at Warwick, but he was constantly criticised for his lack of participation in class. Ed, however, was told off for how she acted, but never for not participating. It just wasn't fair. Surely behaving was better than participating? Honestly.

He hadn't realised he was glaring at her until she grinned at him.

"Ooh, that is one hell of a smoulder you got going on there..." She winked at him and he made a face, pretending to stick a finger down his throat. It made his skin crawl with the insinuation.

"Yuck!"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, now you're just being a prick."

There was a small outbreak of sniggering behind them, mostly from the delinquents who were in this class - Harry, March, and a few of their friends.

The teacher turned. "Miss McKenzie, what did you just call Mr Clemens?" she asked slowly, snapping the cap onto her marker pen and stepping away from the whiteboard.

"...A prick."

Miss Glenister sighed, looking quite angry, and those closest to the pair subtly moved their chairs away. "Miss McKenzie, go stand outside for five minutes, please. Mr Clemens, I'm sure Miss McKenzie was not unprovoked, so please try to keep a civil tongue in your head when she comes back."

Lionel fumed. Stupid Ed! Miss Hamilton was treating him like he started any of it!

Ed looked actually angry, but stormed out, slinging herself back to rest against the wall. She didn't even wince at the impact. Stupid Lionel! He had a problem with her, and she got sent out for calling him out on it. She kicked her foot and a snigger made her look up to see Walter sarcastically waving as he passed by. She bared her teeth after his retreating back, but he was already on his way.

She felt a sort of mutinous feeling rising up, and growled a little. If she had been Nikolai or Lucas, she probably would have reduced something to ice or crystal by now, as those two sometimes did when angry (well, Lucas did, Nikolai couldn't manage to turn big things into crystal yet) but her magic had been slowly seeping away since she last visited the court, and last night had been a drain on it. And even if it had only lasted an hour, the spell had made her tired. Still, it meant her magic would be unpredictable for a while - she really didn't need the stress at the moment.

She kicked at the wall again. She'd been sent out like a child throwing a tantrum!

In class, Callum was anxiously looking out of the door. Ed was continuing to kick the wall with the back of her foot, looking mutinous in a way that reminded him very much of the time she'd been told not to pull a girl's ringlets in primary school and had proceeded to pull the girl's chair instead. This would not go well. He was sure of that.

The teacher went out to talk to her, and he could see that Ed wasn't talking at all. The teacher pointed into the class and she shrugged deliberately slowly, looking off the the side. Miss Hamilton

"I bet she's mouthing off at the teacher now..." Lionel muttered, and March threw a bit of paper at the back of his head. He yelped in surprise and half the class sniggered, while March looked carefully innocent. Lionel glared at him, opening his mouth to say something before the teacher shouted something loudly.

Ed now seemed to be walking off, while the teacher yelled at her retreating back.

"COME BACK HERE!"

Ed didn't. Callum worried at his lip. This would end badly. Their mother had already told Ed off about leaving class! He just hoped she had the sense not to skip school as well. The detention had already got her into hot water, after all.

March threw another paper ball at the the back of Lionel's head. "Isn't it funny, boys? Eddy was being fine until someone started being a prick."

The lazy glance over at Lionel was all it took for a sudden wave of glares to go his way. March was a bit of a leader among the delinquents, and unfortunately for Lionel, he'd made rather an enemy of himself for them. Callum gulped as the teacher walked in.

"I have to go and inform the Headmaster of Miss McKenzie's...unexpected absence. Unfortunately, our email system is down due to bugs again, so I will be five minutes. Please continue your revision, and don't act stupid while I'm gone - I'll hear about it, and everyone can get detention." She was obviously in a bad mood as she headed out of the door, and everyone looked at Lionel as the door closed.

"Excuse me!"

Callum found himself standing up and went red as he tried to look down instead of meeting anyone's eyes. "Ed...She really does go into moods by herself...It wasn't really Lionel's fault that she went off..."

He felt guilty for saying such a thing about his sister, but honestly, he didn't want Lionel to get himself in trouble with the group. March looked at him for a few minutes and shrugged, while at the back of the class Trina looked up from her book and blinked before sighing and tapping at her phone a little. Unknown to her, she was in turn being watched by Paul, who was wondering if she'd make a good girlfriend for Sean. She had three books stacked under the desk, all history related, but one on her lap that she was now openly reading, entitled 'The Call of Cthulhu'. He knew he'd heard of it before, but didn't know where. The point was, it looked creepy, and he was still wondering about what she was like.

Surely not all girls were so creepy?

Ed was swearing to herself as she sat in the courtyard, and scoffed as she received a text from Callum. Yeah, right. She already knew the course backwards and forwards! She was not going back to a class where someone was being a dick to her!

Lionel was always doing this thing where he glared and huffed at her and it just grated so much on her nerves. Callum doing that, she could deal with and understand. Her mother, she had to tolerate. But Lionel just made her want to punch a tooth out of his mouth with every single little annoying sound! If he'd just tell her what the problem was, she'd know what the fuck to actually do!

Flicking through her phone, she lingered on Hilde's name. No, Hilde wouldn't give good advice in this situation. She'd just tell her to kick Lionel in the crotch, probably. It wasn't fair. She didn't know what to do and it was just too much to deal with.

But who said she had to deal with it now?

She walked casually towards the bushes lining the grounds of Tamworth, and then headed for the gates at the side of the school, watching and waiting for half an hour until she saw a car heading out, the gates parting. A few of the staff left now and then, and as the car left she sprinted alongside it, out of the gates and along the road. She'd picked up her bag from the locker, and with it the keys to her motorbike. She stopped halfway along the road and sighed, texting David. She wouldn't get him coffee today, as she had somewhere she needed to be. As in, away from angry parents.

She wriggled into her leathers and slung herself over the bike. Honestly, today was going to suck! Her mother would be mad when she got home, the school would want to talk to her and everything would be sucky and horrible. She groaned and started the Ducati up. While she didn't always manage to stay out of trouble, and she didn't try to be the perfect good little student, she didn't like getting into trouble. She usually got a small sick feeling in her stomach when she knew she would be shouted at later on, and right now it was there. She sped off, heading towards the one place she probably wouldn't be expected to go voluntarily.

The Wolf's Glen cafe was quite empty when she parked her bike outside of it, avoiding Jasper's younger brother as he sloped out, before walking in and slumping at the counter. Honestly. A gasp caught her attention and someone poked her head nervously. Looking up, she smiled in a tired way as Kate stared at her.

"Elisa? What are you doing here? It's still school time!" The young witch hurried forward and around the counter.

She sighed. "I got kicked out of class and ditched. I don't want to go to school anymore anyway, not today. I'll deal with the incoming trouble tomorrow." She looked up at the board. "Do you have anything like a milkshake that would serve me well?"

Kate smiled. "One vanilla milkshake coming right up! Would you like anything with it?"

Ed counted the cash in her purse and bit her lip. "Can I have some Funtom lollipops? The caramel and milk ones..."

Kate gestured to the jar. "We're all out of the milk ones, I'm afraid! You know how these go, they just fly off as soon as they're in."

In the Wolf's Glen, there were children - not many vampire children, of course - but still, there were supernatural children. And like all children, they had a sweet tooth. Funtom candy sold as well as it always had, and milk lollipops were popular among the younger children especially - it was hard to get the flavours you wanted easily. The candy was actually one of the perks of attending the support group.

Ed sighed. "Do you have any honey ones behind the counter?"

"No, sorry! Only the ones in the jar."

"Fine...Three caramel, one toffee and three strawberry." All Funtom candy was generally nice, but Ed did like honey ones especially, and milk ones just a little more. "I won't have any cake this time, please, Kate." She wished she could, but she knew she wouldn't be able to finish it. Anyway, who knew if they were using Betty Crocker cake mix?

She paid Kate and took her lollipops, putting six in her backpack and sticking the toffee one in her mouth, sulking slightly as she sat down. A slight seaweed smell drew her attention to a kid sat next to her, a girl with damp hair and a waterproof bag under her arm. She looked around seven, and had a little juice box, which she was slurping noisily and grinning a little at Ed around it, showing sharp little teeth, serrated like those of a shark.

Ed bared her own teeth.

"Yeah. Yeah, Sharkface. I came back to here. Stop gloating. How did your vacation go?" Ed narrowed her eyes at the girl, gnawing slightly at her lollipop.

The girl shrugged, patting the bag.

"So I guess that means you at least didn't lose your skin. Not that good, then." Ed sighed. "How's your sister?"

Another shrug, but the child frowned and held out a hand, beckoning. A strawberry lollipop was dropped into the (grubby) hand and the juice box straw was pulled out of the mouth of the little girl, shredded to strips at the end by the sharp teeth.

"Harley's fine. You're meant to be in school, ain't ya?"

"Yes, I am. But school sucks." Ed rolled her eyes and picked the straw out of the juice box. "Look at this! It's awful. How are you going to hide that in society, Sharkteeth?"

"My name's not Sharkteeth! And I manage!" The girl huffed at her, kicking at Ed's leg. Ed hissed between her teeth. Shit. That would bruise.

"I'm not getting you another straw, now! Honestly. You're all brats here." She turned away and the little girl scoffed.

"Well, you're stupid. Morris thinks so too." She snorted. "And it's funny what with your being in that school of yours, playing rich girl. It _is _stupid, and you know it. Like a whale near plankton. So many, and easy to exploit. But you can't do that, can you?"

Ed glared at the little selkie girl and looked away. "Wouldn't want to. It would deplete my magic, for one thing. Morris's home is here, so he's alright. My home's a way away, so my magic doesn't return. You and he know that, and he's just prejudiced because he thinks I'm a 'posh freak'."

There was a muttered sentence from the little girl which sounded suspiciously like 'you are'.

Before Ed could do much about it, Kate carried the vanilla milkshake over, and stood shaking her head at them.

"Oh, stop squabbling, you two. You know what it's like when you tease her, Maddie! We don't get to see Ed being here willingly too often!" She smiled at Ed, and Maddie made a face at both of them.

Ed took the milkshake sulkily. "That's because you all tell me I'm gonna go mad when I mature. It's only because of Grandma after all, she's mad as all-"

"It's because your father ran with those giant white dogs of his for three days after he matured, actually." Kate smiled apologetically. "Everyone knows your dad."

This certainly was true. Ciar de Chasse had a reputation.

"Especially women." Ed commented, and rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to go galloping off with Sophie. It's bad enough Callum being convinced. I mean, it could happen to him!"

Maddie cackled. "Oh, yeah, Callum's the one who drives like a bloody maniac." She flicked her fingers back and forth. "Selkies don't have to deal with this. We can survive years without wearing our skin, we can!" She looked proud.

"Yeah, and you can't go into supermarkets without diving onto the fish display, Maddie. So stow it." Ed sipped at the milkshake, glaring at the girl, who flushed.

"That ain't fair! I'm good at that now! I pay afterwards!"

Kate sighed. "You're not allowed back into Tesco now, Maddie. I wouldn't call that good at it." She headed back to the counter.

"Huh! I wouldn't call her good at surviving here!" Maddie stood up, picking her bag up and pointedly moving to another table. Ed stuck her tongue out behind the young girl's back, going back to the milkshake.

A while later, a young girl ran through, her hair covering half her face and a pink backpack on her back as she skidded a little. Ed smiled at her. At least this one was nice.

"Hey Robin! How're you doing?" She offered the new girl a choice of caramel or strawberry lollipop, and the caramel one was hesitantly tugged from her grip and Robin sat down, still huffing.

"Uh, I'm fine..." She lowered her head, turning away as she unwrapped the sweet carefully. Ed hummed.

"Shouldn't you be in school, Robin?" she said finally, and a small shudder made her focus on the girl, who was beginning to cry. _Crap._

"Oh, no. Don't cry! Don't cry, Robin!" She dug some tissues out of her bag and pressed them into her hand. "Let me guess, the glamour ran out again?"

Robin nodded, sweeping her fringe back to reveal one eye in the centre where there should have, on a human, been two. She wiped at her tears and made a snuffling noise, sticking the lollipop in her mouth carefully.

"Sugar is best for a shock. Oh, well. That is why you kept the fringe there, after all. It isn't that bad!" Ed smiled at Robin, patting her shoulder gently. "And a new batch isn't that long to make!" Personally she didn't think it needed hiding, but like many in this area, Robin was determined to make it in the human schooling system without revealing themselves, in order to get as good a job as possible. While Ed didn't get on too well with many of the young people in the Wolf's Glen (the water and flour and Morris incident was not spoken of in her presence), Robin was a sweetheart, and to see her crying because she wanted to go to school made Ed feel guilty.

She sighed, opening her mouth to say something before a hand landed on her shoulder, making her jump

"Robin, Kate has more of the glamour potion ready for you in the back." The man leant around to smile as Robin scurried off. "Hello, Elisa. You're here early."

She scoffed. "Oh, please. We both know it, so don't act all innocent!"

"Now. Please don't take that tone with me. I wasn't even going to mention it. But, I am curious. What happened?"

She looked up at Jasper, opening her mouth to say something before looking down. It wasn't fair!

"A guy in my class was going on at me and I got sent outside. And then I got fed up so I snuck out and I don't want to have to deal with Lionel anymore! It's too much!" She stamped her foot and there was a small crack as a potted plant shattered its confines to spread over the table. Jasper seized her arms.

"Elisa. Elisa, stop and reel it in. Your magic will wear out." He motioned to a waitress to take the plant away as Ed continued.

"I didn't do anything! And you're all telling me that I'm going to end up like my father, and I'm not! I'm not!" Another plant cracked the pot it was in, but didn't escape. Another waitress grabbed that one.

"I understand, Ed. I understand you don't want to lose yourself. But you have to tell people. Bottling it up will lead to making rash decisions - not because of your maturation. You're a teenager, you're meant to do dumb things." He guided her to sit gently down.

"I won't send you back to school like this, alright?" Jasper smiled and crouched to look her in the eyes. "But you need to talk to someone more instead of bottling it up. It's more dangerous for you than for other people. You really can't." He patted her shoulder, and she felt herself relax slightly.

"I...I get it." She sighed and rested her head on the table. "It isn't fair! It isn't!" Nothing, thankfully, smashed this time. Jasper sighed with relief. Thankfully there weren't too many noble-born elves in London.

"Very little seems to be." Jasper stood up, heading into the back. Ed sighed, looking down.

If only he wasn't right.

Sean was waiting for Paul near the geography block at lunchtime, surprised not to see Ed with him. Usually the two would head down after history and they'd be able to get themselves some lunch, before hanging out by some old building or other. It depended which teachers were patrolling where.

Paul sighed. "Ed's gone. Lionel kicked off in class and she then kind of..." He sighed. "Elvis has left the building," March announced, strolling towards them, with Sophie running alongside him. Paul held his hand out and she immediately went to him, looking unhappy as she clung to his arm.

"What's up with her?" Sean asked.

Paul sighed. "Don't know...Hey, Sean, do you think Trina's creepy?"

Sean snapped his head up. "What? No!"

Paul held his free hand up, while March lounged on the wall, seemingly undisturbed by the conversation. "I only meant seeing as she was a little weird. With what she reads..."

Sean glared at him. "She's not creepy!"

March rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man. I swear, if it weren't for Callum, I'd smack the shit out of Lionel. What's up with him?" He clenched his fists.

The other boys turned to him, Sophie still looking off into the distance with her head hanging low.

"Well. See..." Paul scuffed his foot a bit. "He used to be alright, he really did. I don't know what happened, but about...what, four years ago? He left school, I think." He tapped at his chin. "What was it, again?"

"Grief." Sean frowned. "Someone in their family died and he went away, didn't come back till a year later. He came back a sullen dickhead." Leaning over, he patted Sophie's arm. "Callum can take you home, you know. It isn't all bad!"

March scoffed. "Like that gives him any excuse to act like that. Everyone dies someday, you just have to accept it!" He started to walk off, and Sophie snuffled a little before letting go of Paul and running after him.

Paul and Sean looked at each other, before jogging to catch up.

**So, I thought I should just add that March is wrong, but ...yeah, this is okay, I think!**

**please review**


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